


The Dumb One

by Solarcat



Series: Family-verse [5]
Category: Fantastic Four (Ultimateverse), Spider-Man (Ultimateverse)
Genre: Future Fic, Kid Fic, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-12
Updated: 2007-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-07 22:29:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/69904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Solarcat/pseuds/Solarcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm just <i>sick</i> of being the <i>dumb one</i> in this family!"</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dumb One

"Hey, Mayday?" Johnny rapped his knuckles lightly against the door to his daughter's room.

"Go away." A muffled voice emanated from the interior. Johnny sighed. When May had stormed across the living room a few minutes earlier, slamming the door to her bedroom shut behind her and not speaking a word to either of her startled fathers, he had assured Peter that he would handle it.

"I need to do some work on the car. Can you come give me a hand?" He smiled to himself as he heard a rustle of movement within. Working on the car had always been their "thing", the same way that training May in the use of her developing powers was hers and Peter's. Over the years, the two of them had lovingly restored a 1966 Mustang convertible from a piece of junk barely worth selling for parts, to a gleaming, purring thing of beauty. May loved the car as much as Johnny himself did, and he was already planning on giving it to her (once she earned her license, of course).

May emerged from her room a few moments later, dressed in her 'garage' jeans (the ones with the permanent oil stains and back pockets ripped off) and a tank top, her light brown hair bound up in a short ponytail. She wasn't smiling. They descended to the garage in silence and settled themselves in to work as they had a thousand times before.

"What am I looking for?" May finally spoke as she examined the underside of the car, only a few inches above her nose.

"I'm not sure. It's been rattling a bit; I think something might've shaken loose." Johnny slid under the car next to her, casually looking it over. In fact, there was no rattle at all, but he hoped that the comfortable familiarity of the activity would get her to open up. Johnny let a few moments pass before speaking again.

"So. Do you want to tell me what's got you so upset?" He kept his eyes trained upwards, careful to keep his tone light and casual. Just making conversation, not prying...

"You're really not fooling me, Dad." He glanced over to see May rolling her eyes at him.

"Alright, alright." He grinned at her. "I give up, you're smarter than me."

May's face closed up immediately; what little cheer there had been disappeared in an instant.

"No, I'm not." She mumbled, rolling out from under the car and sitting up, wrapping her arms around her knees. Feeling very confused, Johnny did the same, leaning against the car and planting his feet on the concrete to keep himself in place.

"What's this all about, sweetie?" May was staring at the opposite wall dejectedly.

"It's nothing." She lied, then grimaced. Her dads had never let her get away with that, and she knew she wasn't going to get lucky with it today. "It's just... Franklin, you know?"

Johnny blinked. Actually, he didn't know. At all. The two cousins had been raised more like siblings - due in large part to the close proximity of their living arrangements - but despite some minor squabbles when they were younger, they'd always gotten along well.

"I'm not sure I understand." He prompted, hoping to get her talking. It seemed to work, or perhaps getting started had opened up the floodgates. Either way.

"He's just..." She sighed. "He discovered a new element yesterday. In a particle accelerator he designed and built himself."

Johnny recalled hearing something like that, but living with his highly unconventional family as long as he had, he'd learned to tune out a lot of the science-y stuff, for his own sanity.

"But why does that have you all worked up?" A lock of her hair had escaped her ponytail, and he gently tucked it back behind her ear.

"I failed my physics test. He offered to tutor me." She continued dully, still staring at nothing.

"May?" He still couldn't quite connect the dots of this conversation. Franklin helped her with her homework all the time; it wasn't exactly new. So why...?

"I'm just _sick_ of being the _dumb one_ in this family!" She shouted suddenly, her hands curling into fists as tears of frustration gathered at the corners of her eyes.

Oh. The dots connected suddenly, lines appearing in neon colors and blinking like Christmas lights on speed. He quickly pulled his daughter to him, wrapping his arms around her protectively. He was grateful that she let him, and that she seemed to relax a little bit.

"May, honey. You're not dumb. You're not, I promise you that. Okay, so you failed your physics test. You know what?" She looked up at him questioningly. "I never even finished high school."

May took a moment to digest that. She'd never known that about her father. Sensing that he was geting somewhere, Johnny kept going.

"Franklin's a genius, yeah. We've always known that. But he's not perfect, sweetie. Nobody's perfect. So he's better than you when it comes to physics - so what? He can't do a triple backward somersault in midair and land on his feet, can he?" He gave her a little squeeze and smiled, earning a small smile in return.

"I guess not." She admitted finally.

"Besides," he placed the final nail in the coffin of this particular teen crisis, "How many other freshmen are even _taking_ physics?"

Reluctantly, she nodded. "Just me."

Johnny grinned and ruffled her hair, dislodging even more of it from the messy ponytail as he released her from his arms.

"Right. So don't ever say you're the 'dumb one'. There's only room for one 'dumb one' in this family, and that's your Uncle Ben."

She glared at him through slanted eyes, a wry smile - that she had _definitely_ inherited from him - on her face.

"Daaaa~ad."

He smirked and nudged her gently with an elbow.

"You gonna be okay?" He asked softly.

"Yeah. I'm okay." She nodded. "Could you pass me that socket wrench? I think I saw a loose bolt down there."

He could, and he did.

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize for any OOC-ness when it comes to May Parker (the younger). I'm not very familiar with her in canon, so most of her characterization here is of my own invention.


End file.
